Hero Street: A Historical Documentary Film Series

"Hero Street story great tool, antidote for angry rhetoric" Says Dispatch Editorial

The following Editorial was published in the Thursday, February 11, 2016 Moline Dispatch-Argus:

With all the xenophobic rhetoric poisoning politics today, young people could easily get the wrong impression about the land of the free and many of the immigrants who struggle to get here.

So it’s not only worth celebrating, but spreading as widely as possible, the wonderful antidote that folks behind Moline’s Fourth Wall Films and WQPT-TV have found to such venom as Donald Trump’s contention that Mexico sends us primarily its drug addicts, criminals and rapists.

While the GOP presidential candidate did concede that “some” Mexican immigrants “I assume, are good people,” Fourth Wall and area public television leaders have found a perfect way to educate him -- and now young people throughout the nation -- about just how good, even great, many of them are.

They have adapted for schools and teachers the award-winning documentary “Letters Home to Hero Street,” so the story of the patriotic, courageous Mexican Americans of Hero Street, so well known to us, can find its way into classrooms across the nation. This compelling immigration story is just one of the components of this new curriculum.

Education is, of course, the primary goal of the PBS LearningMedia lesson plan geared to junior-high and high school students. And it will no doubt help to bring home the realities of World War II to today’s students in new, more compelling ways as the 25-minutes documentary tells Frank Sandoval’s World War II story through letters he sent home to his family in Silvis between 1942 and 1944.

It also will help pre-teens and teens to connect with today’s soldiers by urging them to write letters through Operation Gratitude and to past heroes by urging them to design and advocate for an overdue war memorial to the 15 Mexican-American medal of honor winners.

Co-producers Lora Adams, of WQPT, and Tammy Rundle, and director Kelly Rundle of Fourth Wall Films, are among those celebrating “such an excellent teaching resource.”

The documentary provided “a wonderful opportunity to teach students about World War II through the perspective of this very personal story of a soldier and his family,” Ms. Adams told reporter Jonathan Turner. “We are excited to share this story, that is so important to our community, with the entire United States and beyond.”

We salute Fourth Wall and WQPT for making this important film and sharing it. We also salute others who worked to make this wonderful classroom tool available, including Bob Ontiveros, Matthew Casillas, LULAC Council No. 10 of Davenport and Darryl Morin. It was created with the help of Illinois Public Media -- WILL-PBS (in Champaign-Urbana), and Mark Foley, who teaches U.S. history at Urbana High School.

We urge teachers who haven’t already done so to access the resource at pbslearningmedia.org and then help spread this wonderful story of courage and patriotism to their colleagues in this community and beyond it.

Of course, it wouldn’t hurt to send Mr. Trump’s campaign a link to it, as well.

To read the full Dispatch-Argus editorial click HERE!

"Letters Home to Hero Street" Buses Roll #isawthebus

Bus billboard art of WQPT/Fourth Wall Films co-production Letters Home to Hero Street. The documentary was funded in part by the Illinois Arts Council.

Two buses began rolling in the Quad Cities area--one on the Iowa side and one on the Illinois side--each featuring a Letters Home to Hero Street billboard.

We encourage people to safely take a photo of the bus with the Letters Home display and post it on Facebook or Twitter with the hashtag #isawthebus.

If you can't take a photo, simply message on Facebook or Twitter where you saw the bus, and add the hashtag #isawthebus.

Photo submitted of the bus as it first left the garage.

A bounty reward of a signed Letters Home to Hero Street DVD will go to the first person to post a photo on FACEBOOK of one of the buses on the street and hashtagged #isawthebus.

Letters Home to Hero Street was produced by WQPT and Fourth Wall Films and funded in part by the Illinois Arts Council.  The documentary focuses on a young Mexican-American veteran named Frank Sandoval and his personal view of World War II as told through the letters he sent home to his family in Silvis, Illinois. He becomes one of eight veterans of WWII and the Korean War killed in combat from the same block-and-a-half long neighborhood now called Hero Street, USA.

To order the Letters Home from Hero Street DVD, click HERE or visit Amazon.com.

To stream the film via VIMEO for $2.00, click HERE.

Letters Home from Hero Street is also available at The Book Rack in Moline and Davenport, and the Quad Cities Convention and Vistors Bureau.

"Hero Street" Filmmakers Interviewed for New "Hola America" PBS Program

Erika Macias mics Hero Street documentary filmmaker Tammy Rundle for the Hola America TV show.

Hola America TV's new program makes its PBS debut on WQPT on Friday, September 20, 2013 with a segment on the new documentary Hero Street by Emmy-nominated documentary filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films.

The segment will include a five-minute excerpt of footage gathered for the film project.  The finished documentary will be feature-length--approximately 90 minutes in length.  

Hola America TV's host Natalie Zarowny interviewed the Rundles about the challenges of the documentary project, their approach to the subject, and what motivates them to document stories like Hero Street.

The Hero Street interview will air on Hola America on Friday, September 20, 2013 at 6:30 p.m.

Hola America TV's host Natalie Zarowny

"Hero Street" Filmmakers Receive Emmy® Nomination

Hero Street filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films have received a Regional (Mid-America) Emmy® nomination in the Historical Documentary category for their award-winning documentary film Country School: One Room – One Nation.  This is the first time the Rundles have entered a film in the Emmy® competition following a March 2012 qualifying broadcast on WQPT-PBS.

“We are deeply honored by this nomination,” said Tammy. “And, we gratefully share this wonderful distinction with everyone who helped us make the film,” added Kelly.

Country School premiered in 2010 at the State Historical Building in Des Moines and has since screened more than 60 times in cities throughout the United States. The critically-acclaimed film was released nationally on DVD in 2011.

The Rundles are currently developing a new documentary entitled Hero Street.  Only a block and a half long, Second Street in Silvis, Illinois lost six young men in World War II and two in the Korean War--more than any other street in America.  Hero Street, as it is now known, has provided over 100 service members since Mexican-American immigrants settled there in 1929.  The film will combine interviews with family members, veterans, community leaders, friends and historians with vintage photos, film and archival material to tell an unforgettable story of American courage, character, and perseverance.

Fourth Wall Films is a film and video production and distribution company formerly based in Los Angeles, California and now located in Moline, Illinois. In addition to Country School, the Rundles have produced the award-winning films Villisca: Living with a Mystery and Lost Nation: The Ioway.

The Mid-America chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) includes television markets primarily in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, Illinois and surrounding DMAs.

NATAS is dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, educational and technical achievements within the television industry. It recognizes excellence in television with the coveted Emmy® Award.